Intel’s first ARM chips coming later this year

While Intel is king of processors used on the desktop, laptops, notebooks and even tablets, when we talk about mobile chips, Intel hasn’t launched any ARM chip and thus it is far behind Qualcomm in the mobile business. However, things will finally change, as early as next year.

Intel’s first ARM chip is expected to arrive later this year, in addition to its new modems. If everything goes as per the plan, Intel will finally take off in the mobile chips business by next year. The UK chip designer has shared a lot of details about its partnership with Intel at the ARM Tech Con 2017 event.

The next generation Cortex A series which will have 10nm nodes and it is expected by end of this year. On the other hand, Intel promises to deliver 30% better performance with its 22nmm node, in comparison to the 28nm node.

The king of nodes, Intel will release a new chip with 10nm node which will run at a 3.5GHz frequency, directly competing with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors. On the other hand, Microsoft is working with Qualcomm to launch Windows 10 on ARM as Intel isn’t able to deliver performance and battery life at the same time.

A few years ago, Intel cancelled the development of Atom chips, codenamed “Sofia” and “Broxton,” which was the only processor that could have powered the Microsoft’s ultimate mobile device at that time. However, things have now changed as Windows 10 could run smoothly on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 processor.

Things are spicing up. Windows on ARM devices are to launch by years end from Qualcomm. Now with Intel, there is competition in this new Windows on ARM ring; and competition will assure great Performance, to Battery Life, to Price ratio’s.

ShiverMeTimbers

Arrr.. Failure of HP Elite X3 already a foreboding sign of what to expect for Windows on ARM. Aside from universal applications, if it can’t run every x86 Windows software including games and 64bit ones out there then the appeal isn’t there.

mark

They’re claiming full support for x86. The X3 wasn’t running Windows on ARM, plus it was a phone where Android dominates, so doesn’t tell us much.

ShiverMeTimbers

Arrr.. Windows on ARM only supports Win32 emulation, so 64bit is out of the question. There’s the question SIMD performance under emulation as well because x86 SIMD is different from ARM’s implementation. Also highly doubt the GPU on the Qualcomm chippery can handle the demands of DX11 and DX12 hardware requirements. Most of them mobile GPUs on ARM chippery are designed for OpenGL ES and are usually up to DX9 capable only. The HP Elite X3 could be docked and linked to a monitor for more productivity things. But yet it failed to find more customers because its more like a niche product when compared to other Android devices.

That’s the best you can ask from a passively cooled integrated GPU anyways.
I am not sure whether ARM can support dedicated GPUs or will support them someday though.

Graham Fluet

If Windows on Arm is actually viable then yes we could see packages optimized for more performance over battery life. If we’re looking at 20+ hour battery life without any optimization to the chip, then a more powerful or higher clocked chip can handle more advanced games while still having respectable battery life. It might not compete with an i7 with a 1080 anytime soon, but it should become the new “good enough” for most consumers.